The Drug Enforcement Administration was established under the Justice Department in 1973 by President Richard Nixon. Its mission was to keep the nation off and away from drugs, which, at least according to the White House, were a moral evil and catalyst of criminal behavior. The agency was formed just two years after Nixon launched what became known as the "war on drugs." Congress and the rest of the nation remained convinced that the scourge of narcotics and drug abusers — and perhaps particularly those who were young, poor or black — was pounding at the gates. Over the next four decades, with most drug policy now firmly in the grips of law enforcement officials, the DEA’s annual budget saw a fortyfold increase, going from a paltry $75 million to nearly $3 billion in 2014.

With more than 11,000 employees and a host of responsibilities, the agency’s activity has expanded worldwide, all the while attracting scrutiny from critics of the drug war who contend that the DEA is an ineffective agency that uses controversial tools to enforce often misguided or unjust federal drug laws.

The catalog of controversies below helps explain why the public has often questioned the DEA’s priorities, as well as the methods it employs to advance them. While the DEA does its best to keep many of its dealings out of the public eye — it regularly claims secrecy is imperative to the success of its anti-drug operations — here are some of the most sketchy, messed up things that we know it has done:

The DEA claimed Prohibition was a success.

Most historians believe the "noble experiment" of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s backfired, creating a myriad of negative unintended consequences and serving as a lesson about the hazards of governing public morals. The DEA, however, tells a different story. In 2010, the DEA and the International Association of Chiefs of Police released a report providing key arguments against drug legalization. In one passage, first highlighted by the Republic Report, the report set out to combat what it called the "myth" that "prohibition didn’t work in the 20’s and it doesn’t work now." Its main argument was that the 18th Amendment didn’t go far enough to restrict the manufacturing and consumption of alcohol at the onset of Prohibition.

Citing figures that suggest there was a decline in alcohol use during that 13-year period — statistics that are regularly contested and impossible to verify — the document argues that Prohibition was a successful policy. The report also downplayed the secondary effects of banning alcohol, such as the precipitous rise of organized crime, at one point suggesting that those effects were increasing before the enactment of Prohibition.

A sample of the DEA’s report.

Unsurprisingly, the report made no mention of the clear negative parallels between early-20th century Prohibition laws and today’s laws that target drugs. In both cases, strict prohibition has taken away resources from treatment for addiction and abuse, overburdened court systems and jails, fostered corruption in law enforcement, propped up organized crime and even, some argue, created a damaging disrespect for the rule of law. In return, these incredibly costly enforcement experiments have largely failed to actually limit people’s consumptive habits.

The DEA imprisoned an innocent suspect in a holding cell for five days without food or water.

In 2012, 24-year-old Daniel Chong was detained by DEA agents in San Diego after his friend’s house was targeted by a drug raid. Chong was told there were no plans to charge him and that he’d be released the same day. But he wasn’t released, and agents who heard or saw him over the next five days did nothing, each believing he was somebody else’s responsibility. Chong was trapped in a windowless 5-by-10 enclosure without food or water, all for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When he was finally discovered, he was incoherent and required medical attention. He said he’d drank his own urine to survive, and at one point attempted suicide. At some point, Chong began to carve "sorry mom" into his arm with broken glass from his eyeglasses, which he ate before being released.

It may be an off-year election, but it’s a big one for drug policy reform. In seven weeks, voters across the country will have a chance to accelerate the unprecedented momentum to legalize marijuana and end the wider drug war. In fact, there are more drug policy reform questions on the ballot this November than ever in American history. Voter initiatives — primarily reforming or repealing marijuana laws — appear on the ballots in seven states, at least 17 municipalities and one U.S. territory. To help you keep score at home, here’s an overview, starting with the highest-profile measures.

Oregon: Passage of Measure 91 will make the Beaver State the third to legalize marijuana for adults outright. Like the historic laws adopted in Colorado and neighboring Washington two short years ago, this initiative would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older and create a statewide system to regulate production and sales. And similar to Colorado’s law, Measure 91 would allow adults to cultivate small amounts of marijuana under controlled circumstances. In this entirely vote-by-mail election, the initiative has already been endorsed by the Pacific Northwest’s largest daily paper and would likely boost efforts across its southern border to end marijuana prohibition in California two years from now.

Alaska: The other statewide marijuana legalization initiative, Measure 2, is closely modeled on Colorado’s Amendment 64 and tracks many of the elements in Oregon’s prospective law. Alaska was something of a marijuana reform pioneer as possession and cultivation of small amounts for personal use in a private residence has been protected under the Alaska Constitution since the 1970s. Alongside Oregon in 1998, Alaska was among the first states to legalize medical marijuana. With a deep-rooted respect for personal freedom, Alaska would become the first red state to legalize marijuana for adult use, no doubt raising eyebrows across the political spectrum.

Florida: Amendment 2 is the only statewide medical marijuana initiative on the ballot this year, and it’s one to watch. Victory would make Florida, with its huge population and bell weather status in American politics, the very first southern state to adopt a medical marijuana law. With 23 other medical marijuana states and super-majority support nationally, passage of Amendment 2 would effectively settle any lingering questions on public acceptance of marijuana as medicine. It’s going to be a challenge, though, since Florida law requires 60% to pass a voter initiative. While polls indicate enormous support, casino mogul Sheldon Adelsoncontributed a few million dollars to stop it as Amendment 2 is associated with Charlie Crist’s comeback gubernatorial campaign. Adelson’s intervention has created the first well-funded opposition to a statewide marijuana reform campaign ever.

California: On the heels of reforming its harshest-in-the-nation Three Strikes law in 2012, Californians are now poised to refine six low-level, nonviolent offenses, including simple drug possession, from felonies to misdemeanors. Proposition 47 would then dedicate the savings — likely more than $1 billion a year — to schools, victim services, and mental health treatment. With retroactive sentencing and expungement provisions, the impact of Prop 47 in California on wasteful corrections spending and individual lives would be profound and surely resonate across the country.

District of Columbia: Earlier this year, the D.C. Council adopted the nation’s most far-reaching marijuana decriminalization law. In November, voters in the nation’s capital will decide whether to go even further. Initiative 71 makes it legal for adults over the age of 21 to possess and cultivate small amounts of marijuana. While District law prevents the ballot initiative from addressing the sale of marijuana, the D.C. Council is considering a bill that would tax and regulate marijuana within the District. D.C. has the highest per capita marijuana arrest rates in the U.S. with enormous racial disparities as police target African Americans for 91 percent of these arrests. Initiative 71 will be the first marijuana reform campaign fought primarily on the issue of the drug war’s ongoing toxic impact on black communities.

Other races: Voters in municipal elections from the Northeast to Micronesia will weigh in November 4 on a range of marijuana focused issues.

· Guam: Voters could make this U.S. territory the first to adopt medical marijuana. Thebinding referendum would allow for dispensaries regulated by the Department of Public Health and Social Services.

· Maine: By a wide margin in 2013, Portlanders chose to eliminate criminal penalties for adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. In seven weeks, voters in York, South Portland, and Lewiston will tackle the same question.

· Michigan: In the last two years, residents of seven cities have voted to remove local penalties for adult possession of small amounts of marijuana in a private residence. As of now, a whopping 11 other cities (with apparently more to come) will have the chance to follow suit this year.

· New Mexico: Last month, the City of Santa Fe became the first in the state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. On the ballot in November, voters in Bernalillo (Albuquerque) and Santa Fe Counties will decide if their county should affirm decriminalization efforts.

Public opinion has shifted dramatically over the last decade in favor of reforming marijuana laws and dismantling the egregious excesses of the drug war. And elected officials have begun to take notice. The U.S. House has voted five times in recent months to let states set their own marijuana policies while Senators Rand Paul and Cory Booker have introduced similar bi-partisan legislation in the U.S. Senate in addition to a cluster of other long-overdue criminal justice reforms. When the dust settles on November 5, the momentum for change in this country will only have accelerated.

Stephen Gutwillig is the Deputy Executive Director for Programs of the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation’s leading organization working to promote alternatives to the failed war on drugs.

Kentuckians for Medicinal Marijuana

Wednesday, February 6, 20131:00pm

The Capitol Annex Building 700 Capitol Ave Loop, Frankfort, KY, 40601

Support the cause, the senators need to feel and hear your voice. Meet us at the Capital Hill Annex building and show your support for SB 11 (Gatewood Galbraith Medical Marijuana Bill). Chronically ill Kentucky citizens that have been debilitated by disease need your support. Please help our cause by coming out to the rally. You can also further support our cause by making an appointment to see your senator the same day. We can’t do it without you.

WASHINGTON — An appeals court rejected the bid by medical marijuana backers to ease federal controls of the drug, ruling that the government properly kept the substance in its most dangerous category.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the Drug Enforcement Administration’s decision to maintain marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act because there are no adequate scientific studies finding an acceptable medical use.

“The question before the court is not whether marijuana could have some medical benefits,” U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards wrote in the opinion.

Edwards said the court’s review was limited to whether the DEA’s decision declining to reschedule the drug was arbitrary and capricious. He said the court found there was “substantial evidence” to support the agency’s determination that such studies don’t exist.

The case involves a 10-year-old petition from medical marijuana advocates who asked the DEA to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III, IV or V drug, which would allow for looser regulation. On June 21, 2011, the DEA rejected the request, stating that existing clinical evidence wasn’t adequate to warrant reclassification.

“To deny that sufficient evidence is lacking on the medical efficacy of marijuana is to ignore a mountain of well- documented studies that conclude otherwise,” Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access, the medical marijuana advocacy

organization that brought the case, said in an e-mailed statement.

Elford told the court during arguments in October that there were more than 200 studies that the agency refused to consider.

The group said it will appeal the ruling, according to the statement.

Lena Watkins, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told the court in October that the studies cited by the marijuana proponents were rejected because the research didn’t meet government standards. She said about 15 studies meet the standards, though the government doesn’t have the final results yet.

The court also waved off claims that government blocked efforts to study the medical effects of marijuana, citing the Health and Human Services Department policy supporting the clinical research with botanical marijuana.

“It appears that adequate and well-controlled studies are wanting not because they have been foreclosed but because they have not been completed,” Edwards said in the ruling.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — With support from some of the state’s top politicians and claims that it would create thousands of jobs, an effort to legalize industrial hemp — the less-potent cousin of marijuana — may have its best chance of passing the Kentucky General Assembly.

Opposition from the Kentucky State Police helped kill earlier efforts to legalize hemp, which can be processed into fiber for clothing or provide an oil used in skin- and hair-care products. Once legal, hemp production in the United States was centered in Kentucky. Production fell nationally after the mid-1800s, as cotton surged.

State police still oppose legalizing hemp, arguing in part that because the plants look virtually the same as marijuana it could impede drug enforcement efforts.

But the proposal to legalize hemp has gained momentum from the alliance of Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, state Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Paul Hornback, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

“This is something that you don’t have to borrow any money (for) that will have an immediate impact of thousands of jobs,” Comer said, based on an assumption that processors and manufacturers would locate in Kentucky if it is one of the first states to approve it. “We’re ahead at something that relates to economic development for once, so let’s pursue it.”

Comer and Paul say the state police concerns are unfounded because growers of industrial hemp would be licensed and global-positioning system devices would identify legal crops and reveal others as illegal.

Comer’s Senate Bill 50, sponsored by Hornback, a Republican from Shelbyville, was filed earlier this month just before the legislature adjourned until February.

The bill would require growers to be licensed annually and have their backgrounds checked by the Agriculture Department. Each licensee would be required to plant a minimum of 10 acres to eliminate people who aren’t serious from getting licenses.

Growers would have to keep sales contracts for three years and provide names of hemp buyers to the department.

Hemp seeds produce plants with less than 1 percent THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, which has between 3 percent and 15 percent THC.

Comer said he believes there are 22 votes in the 38-member Senate in favor of the bill. But if it isn’t assigned to Hornback’s committee by Senate President Robert Stivers and other Senate leaders, it may never get to the floor.

“I’m afraid I see problems in the Senate,” Comer said.

Stivers, a Republican from Manchester, said some members are uncomfortable with the bill.

If the measure passes the Senate, it likely will face an even tougher battle in the House, where Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom McKee, a Democrat from Cynthiana, has blocked similar bills from getting a vote in the past

McKee has said the state police concerns resonate with him.

“I think we have some questions to answer, but I certainly don’t want to close any opportunity for viable agriculture,” McKee said earlier this month.

Gov. Steve Beshear said on a Lexington radio call-in show recently that his “only hesitation” is law enforcement concerns.

Even if an industrial hemp bill passed in Kentucky, it would still need federal approval. Federal drug policy effectively bans growing it, although other countries, such as Canada, allow it.

Paul, a Bowling Green Republican, has supported federal legislation to enable hemp production by classifying it separately from marijuana. Paul and Comer appeared together at the Kentucky State Fair last year to talk about their support for industrial hemp.

If legalized, Comer said he doesn’t see corn and soybean growers in Western Kentucky switching to industrial hemp, but he said it would be a profitable alternative for growers in hillier areas whose land is now used for grazing and pasture.

All images are the property of the Green Bus Tour for Marijuana Legalization…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEOctober 22, 2012

Press Conference:
When: Monday October 22, 1:00pm
Where: City Hall Steps 801 Plum St. Cincinnati, Ohio
The CannaSense Campaign Tour to Legalize Marijuana Across the United States and End Prohibition 2, has begun with the Green Cannabus!

It’s Mission: The Green Cannabus is touring the United States this Election Year to spotlight Marijuana Legalization. Stacey Theis and friends started in North Carolina and will end up in Arizona after many city stops along the way.

Monday, the 22nd, the Cannabus is stopping in Cincinnati for a Meet and Greet and Press Conference to talk about why ending Cannabis Prohibition makes sense.

Speaking at the Press Conference will be CannaSense Campaign Director Stacey Theis, Jake Jones (Son of Deceased Drug War Victim, Gary Shepherd), Medical Cannabis Activist Tonya Davis with NORML Women’s Alliance, Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment and Sponsor of the Ohio Medical Compassion ACT (HB 214). They will be sharing their stories and vision of how President Obama can re-schedule Cannabis so Doctors and Patients can decide healthcare choices, not our Government. They believe he can win back the voters he’s losing by keeping his 2008 campaign promise to let Medical Cannabis be a States Right issue.

Also speaking will be Moms, Dads, Grandparents and Patients from all walks of life…all wanting to end Prohibition 2 and to stop wasting tax payer’s dollars on wrecking the lives of families by arresting, prosecuting, caging up and creating criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens.
No Victim, No Crime.

From 4-5pm, the Cannabus Folks will be guests on HempRock Radio which airs on WVQC-LP 95.7 FM, http://www.wvqc.org and with the WVQC Phone App at http://www.tunein.com. WVQC-LP broadcasts from Media Bridges studios in the Crosley Telecommunications Building on Central Parkway.

The “War on Drugs” is a War on Women Women are the fastest-growing population within the prison industrial complex Between 1986 and 1999, the incarceration rate for women in prison for drug offenses grew by 888%. From 1986 (the year mandatory minimum sentencing was enacted) to 1996, the number of women in federal prison for drug crimes increased from 2,400 to 24,000. This unprecedented rise is a direct result of the “war on drugs,” which has been the main factor in the overall increase in the imprisonment of women. Since 1986, the overall number of women in prison increased by 400%. For women of color, the rise is 800%.
The “war on drugs” replaced judicial discretion in sentencing with harsh mandatory minimums and over-policing in poor, predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods. Policing that targets inner-city neighborhoods as the primary method for addressing the drug problem generates arrests of drug users and small-time dealers, filling the prisons, but does very little to curb the drug trade. In the 1980’s, amid the media frenzy over the “crack epidemic,” women, especially pregnant women and women of color, became the target of punitive law enforcement efforts. Unsupported and misleading information on the consequences of prenatal exposure to cocaine received widespread media coverage and lawmakers began introducing legislative proposals addressing the subject. Since then, eighteen states have amended their civil child welfare laws to specifically address the subject of a woman’s drug use during pregnancy, ranging from an evaluation of parenting ability to the basis for presuming neglect and terminating parental rights and referral to child welfare authorities to prosecution. In some states, including South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, pregnant women found to be using illicit drugs have been prosecuted as child abusers and sentenced to
up to ten years in jail. In several cases, drug addicts who have given birth to stillborn babies and submitted to a drug test with positive results have been prosecuted for murder. No one wants pregnant women to use drugs, but treating it as a punishable offense will only deter pregnant addicts from seeking pre-natal care or addiction treatment. Women of color, in particular, have been targeted for punishment, as these policies are enforced in a blatantly racist manner. In Charleston, South Carolina, for example, a 2001 study concluded that the local public hospital selectively drug tested pregnant women who met the hospital’s criteria to have drug abuse problems, reported positive tests to the police, and had the women arrested (often within minutes of giving birth)and delivered to jail. 29 of the 30 women prosecuted under this policy were black. Women are the least violent segment of the prison population- roughly 85% of women in prison are serving time for nonviolent offenses. The U.S. Government’s response to the global drug trade has been an increase of interdiction efforts and greater presence of border patrol. As a result, drug traffickers have become more calculating in their methods of trafficking. The individuals least likely to be suspected of trafficking are women, particularly women with small children. Although many women are involved in trafficking for the same reasons as their male counterparts, other women are involved because they are unable to find legal or sustainable means to support their families, or are coerced into transporting drugs under threat of violence or death. These women are subject to criminal sanctions that far outweigh their roles in drug trafficking. Many have no previous criminal record. Because the “war on drugs” is fought on low-level drug dealers and drug users instead of the cartels that control the drug trade, women often serve harsher sentences for drug offenses because they cannot provide prosecutors with information to trade for reduced sentencing. Since women, as drug couriers, are often the “mules” in the hierarchal drug trade, they rarely possess information that allows them to benefit from reducing sentencing provisions. Drug addiction must be treated as a health issue, not a legal problem. Many of the women in prison for drug offenses will never recover. They will not have the means to seek treatment for their addictions, recover their children from the state’s custody, or support themselves financially. Their chances of overdose, disease, and homelessness will dramatically increase.

Washington, D.C. — Late last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed to hear oral arguments in Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration, a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical value. Ten years after the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) filed its petition, the courts will finally review the scientific evidence regarding the therapeutic value of marijuana. The D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments on October 16th at 9:30am.

“Medical marijuana patients are finally getting their day in court,” said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel with Americans for Safe Access, the country’s leading medical marijuana advocacy group. “This is a rare opportunity for patients to confront politically motivated decision-making with scientific evidence of marijuana’s medical efficacy,” continued Elford. “What’s at stake in this case is nothing less than our country’s scientific integrity and the imminent needs of millions of patients.”

ASA filed its lawsuit in January, challenging the July 2011 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denial of the CRC petition, which was filed in 2002. The DEA is the final arbiter on petitions to reclassify controlled substances, but other agencies are also involved in the review process. Patient advocates claim that marijuana is treated unlike any other controlled substance in that rescheduling petitions are encumbered by politics and therapeutic research is subjected to a unique and overly rigorous approval process.

The announcement of oral arguments comes just weeks after a study was published in The Open Neurology Journal by Dr. Igor Grant one of the leading U.S. medical marijuana researchers, claiming that marijuana’s Schedule I classification is “not tenable.” Dr. Grant and his fellow researchers concluded it was “not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking.” The study urged additional research, and stated that marijuana’s federal classification and its political controversy are “obstacles to medical progress in this area.” Marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I substance (along with heroin) is based on the federal government’s position that it has “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

For more than a year, the Obama Justice Department has been escalating its attacks in medical marijuana states, including dozens of new federal indictments and prosecutions. Though U.S. Attorneys often claim that the accused have violated state law in some way, defendants are prevented from using any medical evidence or a state law defense in federal court. If the rescheduling lawsuit is successful and marijuana is reclassified, federal defendants will then gain the basis for a medical necessity defense.

The ASA appeal brief asserts that the federal government has acted arbitrarily and capriciously in its efforts to deny marijuana to millions of patients throughout the U.S. ASA argues in its brief that the DEA has no “license to apply different criteria to marijuana than to other drugs, ignore critical scientific data, misrepresent social science research, or rely upon unsubstantiated assumptions, as the DEA has done in this case.” ASA is urging the court to “require the DEA to analyze the scientific data evenhandedly,” and order “a hearing and findings based on the scientific record.” The panel of judges assigned to hear oral arguments includes Circuit Judges Henderson and Garland, and Senior Circuit Judge Edwards.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have adopted medical marijuana laws that not only recognize the medical efficacy of marijuana, but also provide safe and legal access to it. Since the CRC petition was filed in 2002, an even greater number of studies have been published that show the medical benefits of marijuana for illnesses such as neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s. Last year, the National Cancer Institute, a division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, added cannabis to its list of Complementary and Alternative Medicines, pointing out that it’s been therapeutically used for millennia.

AFI: Several patient-plaintiffs are available for interviews

William Britt
Mr. Britt is a 52-year-old resident of Long Beach, California, who developed polio as a child, which caused him to have scoliosis, a fused left ankle, shortened left leg, and bone degeneration in his left hip. Mr. Britt also suffers from epilepsy, depression and insomnia, and uses marijuana to treat chronic pain in his leg, back, and hip. Marijuana has reduced Mr. Britt’s seizures and depression, and helps him sleep. Although Mr. Britt has taken prescription medication such as Marinol, Robaxin, Soma, and Xanax, none has proven as effective as marijuana.

Michael Krawitz
Mr. Krawitz is a 49-year-old resident of Elliston, Virginia, who suffered an automobile accident in 1984 while serving in the United States Air Force. Mr. Krawitz has been rated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as being totally and permanently disabled. Mr. Krawitz uses marijuana to treat chronic pain and trauma associated with his accident. He also use marijuana to treat central serous retinopathy. However, because of Mr. Krawitz’s medical marijuana use, he has been denied pain treatment by the VA.

Steph Sherer
Ms. Sherer is a resident of Washington, D.C. and the founder and Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA). In April of 2000, Ms. Sherer suffered a physical attack that has caused her to suffer from a condition that produced inflammation, muscle spasms, pain throughout her body, and decreased mobility in her neck. Because of multiple pain medications she was prescribed, Ms. Sherer suffered kidney damage. After her doctor recommended medical marijuana, Ms. Sherer successfully reduced her inflammation, muscle spasms, and pain. This prompted Ms. Sherer to found ASA in April of 2002 to share what she learned about the therapeutic value of marijuana and to change public policy.

Five years ago, Montana’s most outspoken medical marijuana patient — Robin Prosser — committed suicide after the DEA seized her medicine, making her life unbearable. Now flash forward to this past Wednesday night, when the feds’ war on medical marijuana claimed another Montana citizen’s life …Former medical marijuana provider Richard Flor died on Wednesday after suffering heart attacks and kidney failure about six months into his five-year federal sentence. Richard was sentenced despite suffering from diabetes, Hepatitis C, and osteoarthritis. For months, the federal government failed to place him in a facility that could give him the medical care he needed — and that the judge recommended. Let your Congress member know that it’s past time to end this carnage. Richard was Montana’s first registered caregiver, under a law that MPP passed via voter initiative in November 2004. He was assisting his wife Sherry — who suffers from chronic pain and is allergic to pain medications — as well as other patients. Richard believed President Obama and his Justice Department when they said that medical marijuana providers would not be a federal enforcement priority. So, in 2009, Richard co-founded Montana Cannabis, where patients could get reliable, safe access to their medicine. But then the feds suddenly shifted their policy in March 2011, targeting Montana Cannabis and several other providers without warning. The feds didn’t spare Sherry, either: She is serving a two-year sentence. Please email your U.S. House representative to ask them to pass legislation to give legal protection to medical marijuana patients, caregivers, and businesses in the 17 (and soon to be more) states and the District of Columbia, where medical marijuana is legal.

We call ourselves a free country, yet it is illegal to use marijuana on a recreational basis.

Seriously? Think about this, marijuana funds 60 percent of illegal drug operations across the United States. This market dictated by violence and extortion is really an unregulated form of capitalism. Ever wonder what capitalism would be without regulation? Just look at what the war on drugs has done to America. Some $1.5 trillion spent and nothing gained on the home front when it comes to the usage of drugs.

Ever wonder why? It’s simple, you can’t legislate free will, and any time the government deems it necessary to do so, it costs the taxpayer unmeasured amounts. Why unmeasured? With so much money spent to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is likely we are borrowing money from the Chinese government to tell Bob he doesn’t have the freedom to enjoy a plant at his own discretion.

Isn’t it apparent that we have lost the war on drugs after arresting so many millions? According to Adam Liptak of The New York Times in 2008, “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.”

On average, it costs our country about $40,000 per prisoner per year. It just doesn’t seem to be the real reason behind the drug war, does it? It’s almost like another dirty little government secret. It appears to be a racially motivated legislation. We all know minorities are filling these prisons, and we also know that the majority of these prisoners are criminally prosecuted and incarcerated based on nonviolent drug offenses.

Is it really worth $40,000 to keep one individual from getting high?

Meanwhile, this country is $16 trillion in debt. Do you want to cut grandma’s health care? Or should we cut back on the cost of the drug war by legalizing marijuana? You can’t have an honest conversation about reducing the nation’s debt burden without considering it.

America is known for its agricultural resources which it shares with people across the globe. So why should we be ashamed of producing a useful product that people might enjoy too? Everyone knows that hemp, a non-psycho-tropic form of marijuana, can be used to make lots of products. In fact, hemp was used to make rope for years, right here in Kentucky.

Instead of wasting money subsidizing farmers to not grow in this country, let the farmers earn an honest living, so they can once again put their children through college. Why is it in America we continue to hold back an industry because a certain uneducated part of the country doesn’t understand it or doesn’t believe in a person’s right to get high? News flash: Folks are still getting high, legal or not, like it or not.

Our government thinks it has the right to dictate a way of living to the American people. I say enough is enough. It is high time we start dictating to them what it is we will spend our money on. Let’s be serious in 2012 America, and it all starts with legalizing marijuana. It’s just common sense

José Peña was tired as he drove south toward Houston on the morning of Sept. 27, 1998. Following a quick trip north to Kansas in a rented van – to pick up the brother of a distant cousin’s son – he was on his way home to Houston, where he lived with his wife and four children. It was the kind of favor Peña often did for friends and family, no matter how distant the relation – and the kind of favor that irritated his wife. “I was tired, and I was trying to get home,” the 50-year-old recently recalled. “My wife was mad at me for doing favors for other people” when he could instead be home.

That morning, just before 8am, Peña was cruising south down I-45, a little more than two hours from home. He was driving in the right-hand lane through Leon County when he passed a state trooper sitting in his car on the grass median. He thought nothing of it – just another Texas trooper on a long and nondescript stretch of highway – until he noticed the trooper pull out onto the road and follow him. The officer, Mike Asby, a veteran member of the Texas Department of Public Safety, drove in the left lane until his car was parallel with Peña’s. Peña looked over at Asby. “He pulled up next to me, and I looked at him because I wasn’t not going to make eye contact” with an officer whom Peña thought was definitely checking him out for whatever reason.

Although Peña steadfastly maintains that he wasn’t doing anything wrong or unusual, Asby would later testify that Peña caught his attention because he was driving more slowly than the rest of traffic in a van caked with mud; when the van “weaved across the center stripe and also across the solid yellow line on the shoulder,” Asby testified in January 2003, he had to take action. “You’re required to stay in a single lane of traffic,” he said. He activated his lights and pulled Peña over.

Within the hour, Peña would be in handcuffs in the back of the trooper’s car, headed to the county jail in Centerville on a charge of marijuana possession. Nearly five years later, Peña would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison for possession of what the state said turned out to be 23.46 pounds of freshly cut marijuana that Peña was transporting in the back of the muddy blue van. Although Asby testified that this was not a normal highway drug bust – “normally,” he testified, marijuana moves north from Houston, already “dried out, cured, and ready to be sold” – he was certain that what he found casually laid out in the back of the van was pot because it smelled like pot – and he knows pot when he smells it. “It’s something that you learned in [28] years of experience being on the road?” prosecutor Whitney Smith (now Leon Coun­ty’s elected D.A.) asked Asby.

“Yes, sir,” Asby replied.

Just Trust Us

There are at least two problems with the official story of Peña’s arrest and prosecution. First, Peña is adamant – and has been since 1998 – that what he was transporting was not marijuana, but actually hemp, pot’s non-narcotic cousin. Peña says he found the plants growing wild in Kansas and cut them down, thinking that he could use the stems and leaves in the various craft projects he made with leather and wood in his garage workshop; there was no doubt in Peña’s mind that what he was transporting was not marijuana. The second, and eventually more decisive problem with the official story of the Peña bust, is that prior to his trial, officials with the Department of Public Safety lab in Waco, where the plants were taken for testing, completely destroyed all of the case evidence – all 23.46 pounds of plant material – and then also lost the case file with all of the original documentation of the lab’s work on the case. By the time Peña was finally tried – more than four years later – there was absolutely no evidence to show the jury; instead, the state relied completely on the “experience” of Asby and of Waco lab supervisor Charles Mott (now retired) to persuade jurors that what they say they saw and tested was actually marijuana.

It worked.

That is, it worked until late last year, when Peña’s conviction was finally overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, and Leon County subsequently dismissed the charges for good. In the intervening decade, however, Peña’s case became a political hot potato, catching the attention of judges and lawyers across the state who watched as the 10th Court of Appeals, based in Waco, played tug-of-war with the Austin-based CCA over the power of the Texas Constitution, and whether it affords citizens greater rights and protection against state power than does the U.S. Constitution.

It’s a conflict that has left the state of Texas divided and may mean – at least for the time being – that persons tried for crimes in one part of the state will be afforded greater protection from prosecutorial errors or malfeasance than are others. Frankly, says Keith Hampton, an Austin defense attorney who represented Peña just before his case was dismissed, you just “don’t see this happen very often.” Ulti­mate­ly, whether the protections gleaned from the Texas Constitution by the 10th Court will remain in force and be applied to all Texans is still to be determined.

Weeds, Not Weed

Peña had a knack for creating handcrafted leather and wood items that sold like hotcakes, he says, at flea markets in and around Houston. He made personalized shellacked plaques and leather key chains with popular first names spelled out in tiny beads, and at a dollar a key chain, they sold well. So when he first saw the hemp plants growing on the roadside near Manhattan, Kan., they gave him an idea. He would take the plants – which, to an untrained eye, look exactly like marijuana plants – press the leaves, and then use them on plaques or affixed to the small leather wallets that he also had become expert at making. He recognized these as “volunteer” hemp plants – they grow wild across the country, reminders of the days when hemp farming was commonplace and even, during World War II, encouraged by the feds as supporting the war effort. By the Kansas roadside, they were scraggly and abundant. When he pulled into the Tuttle Creek State Park outside Manhattan, and saw the plants growing everywhere, he “loaded … up.”

Indeed, Peña thought nothing of the fresh-cut plants that he’d laid out in the back of the blue van he was driving. He knew – partly from experience of having smoked pot when he was younger, and partly because he knew that hemp was once a major agricultural commodity – that the plants were nothing more than weeds that looked like weed.

However, that’s not how Asby saw it. To him, it was clear that one thing, and only one thing, was taking place. Peña was moving a large amount of marijuana to Houston – as unusual as that might be, Asby acknowledged.

Peña repeatedly told Asby that the plants were hemp, and his insistence clearly gave some pause to Asby and the two backup officers who soon joined him. The three men stood next to the van pondering the notion that a plant could look like, but not actually be, marijuana. “I … questioned them, I said, ‘Well, he says it’s not marijuana,'” Asby recalled in court. “I knew that there was a substance called hemp and I was asking them. … And I asked them, ‘You ever heard of something like marijuana, just hemp, that is legal to have?'” he continued. “I don’t know that there is a legal kind. That was the question I was asking the officers: ‘Have you ever heard of this … where marijuana was cut and it turns out to be legal?'”

In the end, Asby was unpersuaded. “I just know marijuana smells like marijuana,” he testified in 2003. “And I have never found anything that I thought was marijuana that wasn’t.” He cuffed Peña and hauled him off to jail.

Robert Platshorn is against the war on drugs; so much so that he spent 5k on two pro-pot billboards. The 69-year-old director of Florida National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) did so as part of "The Silver Tour," which is a campaign to convince senior citizens in South Florida that medical marijuana is a good thing.

Platshorn is a rare senior citizen indeed. Seniors (Florida has lots of ‘em!) are credited as the reason for the failure of California’s Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization initiative. And in in general, older populations do frown on legalization. Gallup in 2011 charted 39 percent of folks 65 and older as in support of legalization of marijuana; compare that to the 62 percent support from those aged 18-29. The thing about Platshorn, though, is that he spent much of his time in those younger, more pro-pot demographics in prison. In 2008, Platshorn finished out a 30-year term for marijuana smuggling as part of the "Black Tuna Gang."

As part of the Silver Tour, Platshorn put up two billboards in support of medical marijuana, one of which is to the right. They will run for a month.

Down the road apiece, just after a billboard advertising a service for clogged drains, stands the second big sign. "Reschedule Medical Marijuana" it reads. Below it is a quote from former administrative Judge Francis L. Young’s ruling about pot in a 1988 case: "One of the Safest Therapeutically Active Substances Known to Man."

The billboards urge viewers — some 54,500 cars pass that section of Sample Road daily, according to the state Department of Transportation — to learn more at The Silver Tour, the billboards’ sponsor.

Platshorn surely is not the most sympathetic face of the pro-legalization movement, at least not to those on the fence about the issue, but it’s cool that he’s now taking the slow and sneaky path to convince those most skeptical.

Here’s a sampling of a Miami Herald article written on the occasion of the former drug-smuggler’s release from jail. The implication seems to be that weed trafficking was a gentleman’s game in the 1970s. He was, after all, non-violent:

This was just business, and good business wasn’t violent, not in the mid-Seventies, when Platshorn ran his transcontinental racket. Marijuana suppliers were family-run enterprises mediated by political figures and local law enforcement intent on keeping a lid on the trade while lining their own pockets. And he trusted his partners. They were his stoner buddies, and he knew they’d come through for him.

Those were the years before the cocaine blizzard swallowed South Florida, and Platshorn was just an entrepreneurial pothead leading the 007 existence he’d always dreamed of — and smoking some really good weed while he was at it.

Back in Florida, he had a handful of yachts at his disposal. From a posh suite at theFontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, he operated an auto auction, a marina club, and a barbershop. He used canal-front stash houses and wore stylish plaid leisure suits with broad collars as sharp as spearheads….

Platshorn and friends would be accused of smuggling, or at least attempting to smuggle, 500 tons of marijuana into the United States during the mid- to late Seventies. When the gang was busted in September 1978, the DEA proclaimed it the most sophisticated drug ring it had ever encountered.

Platshorn’s 1980 conviction was a major coup for drug enforcement agencies, the first join FBI/DEA enterprise. In all, eight of the gang’s central members were convicted in two federal trials, but the leaders — Platshorn and Robert Meinster — would pay the stiffest price: prison sentences totaling 108 years between them.

Kentucky Hemp Coalition

QUOTE
“That's my goal as AG Commissioner to continue to build new markets for new agricultural crops and that industrial hemp is a viable option for Kentucky. We know it will grow well in this climate. Used to be the leading crop in Kentucky,”
Agriculture Commissioner
James Comer
kentuckyhempcoalition.
blogspot.com/

A Democracy

"A Democracy is when two wolves

and a sheep take a vote on what's

for dinner. A Republic is when the

sheep is well armed and can beg to

differ with the vote.

" Benjamin Franklin"

22 years ago...
Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.
...
The judge recommends that the Administrator transfer marijuana from Schedule I to
Schedule II.

Francis L. Young
Administrative Law Judge
September 6, 1988
Docket No. 86-22
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Drug Enforcement Administration
33 years ago...
"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."

President Jimmy Carter
Message to Congress
August 2, 1977

Kentucky, “Dark and Dangerous Ground”

The Dark and Bloody Ground

The popular belief that the name Kentucky means "Dark and Bloody Ground" is apparently without foundation. Yet through the years, the image has persisted in literary and oral tradition as a description of the Kentucky country.

One traditional explanation sites Delaware legend in which the ancient tribe of the Lenni-Lanape allied with the Iroquois to fight the Allegewi, the original inhabitants of Kentucky. In a single bloody battle the Allegewi were virtually exterminated. The land where an entire nation had been eradicated became known as the "dark and bloody ground". The violent clashes between the Iroquois and the southern Indians only helped reinforce the image.

In his book, "Historical Sketches of Kentucky" (1874), Richard H. Collins says that a northern Indian once asked Indian fighter Joseph H. Daveiss how white men could live in land that had seen so much bloodshed. The Indian said that the ghosts of those killed in the Indian wars haunted the land making it dangerous.

At the execution of the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals the Cherokee Cheif Dragging Canoe is said to have told Col. Richard Henderson that the lands south of the Kentucky river were "bloody ground"and would be "dark and difficult to settle". However Ruben T. Durrett said in his book, "The Centenary of Kentucky"(1892) that the phrase was used to discourage Henderson from purchasing the land.

Our Environment

Toxic chemicals in our environment, such as mercury, lead, and certain manmade chemicals, have been linked to cancer, birth defects and brain impairments. Reducing or eliminating the load of these dangerous chemicals in the products we buy, the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink can help reduce the toll of human disease and suffering.

http://www.nrdc.org/health/default.asp

PLEASE DO NOT USE!

PLEASE DO NOT USE SO CALLED "SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA" OR "SPICE" SOLD UNDER AN EVER INCREASING VARIETY OF NAMES!
IT IS NOT MARIJUANA AT ALL AND I AM INSULTED THAT THE WORDS SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA ARE USED TO DESCRIBE THESE SUBSTANCES! "FAKE DRUGS" WOULD SUFFICE!
THEY KILL!
PLEASE COPY AND OPEN THE LINK BELOW TO READ ONE STORY ABOUT THESE "FAKE DRUGS"!
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/60e0b41dcfeb4c8896f89c4a7409dc99/KY--Synthetic-Drugs/
PARENTS, WATCH YOUR CHILDREN! BETTER TO OFFER THEM THE REAL THING THAN TAKE A CHANCE ON THEM GETTING A HOLD OF SUCH GOD-AWFUL SUBSTANCES!
"...Officials said the powdery substance sold as bath salts mimic the effects of cocaine, ecstasy and LSD. It can be snorted, injected or mixed with drinks for food. The chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates, violent behavior and suicidal thoughts.
Synthetic marijuana contains organic leaves coated with chemicals that provide a marijuana-like high when smoked. The product is marketed under various brands include Spice and K2.
The synthetic drugs can be purchased on the Internet and in some tobacco and smoke shops, drug paraphernalia shops, gas stations and convenience stores..."
OF NOTE: THESE PRODUCTS ARE MOST OFTEN USED BY THOSE WHO ARE FORCED TO SUBMIT TO "DRUG TESTIING"....
THAT IS WHY THAT THEY HAVE BECOME SO POPULAR ALONG WITH THE FACT THAT THEY ARE READILY AVAILABLE FOR SALE TO MINORS - OR SOMEONE WHO WOULD PURCHASE FOR A MINOR.
THIS HAS TO STOP!

PoliticoMitch McConnells Love Affair with HempPoliticoThe story of how Mitch McConnell evolved on the hemp issue began in 2010. Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite, was running to replace the retiring Jim Bunning in the U.S. Senate and spent much of the primary season blasting McConnell, who not only ...Hemp Legalization Advocates Have Powerful Ally In McConnell […]

Slate MagazineMitch McConnell Has Always Had Only One Goal: Win the Next ElectionSlate MagazineSeven weeks after pledging to make Republicans in Congress look less “scary,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is just making them look rudderless. McConnell spent Tuesday scrambling to come up with a way to allow congressional Republicans to ...After eight y […]

PoliticoMitch McConnell, Harry Reid will meet with BibiPoliticoIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a bipartisan meeting with Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid the same day as his controversial address to Congress on Tuesday, McConnell's office announced Thursday. Majority Leader ...and more »

PoliticoRed State blog compares Mitch McConnell to Darth VaderPolitico“I told you guys the Senate GOP would screw us over on DHS funding, but even I had no idea Mitch McConnell would capitulate so easily,” Erick Erickson wrote in a blog post published Wednesday morning. “McConnell behaved as if he needs testosterone ...

JUDSON PHILLIPS: It is time for Mitch McConnell to goWashington TimesSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accompanied by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., right, talks about his move to disentangle one of two contested immigration measures from the Homeland Security budget and debate the issues separately, as the ...

Town HallRon Paul: 'More terrorist attacks have been thwarted by airline passengers ...Washington TimesRon Paul of Texas says Americans would be better off if Congress transferred the few constitutional functions performed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to other parts of the government and then shut the rest down, saying the Transportation […]

SalonMy libertarian vacation nightmare: How Ayn Rand, Ron Paul & their groupies ...SalonI read the books by Charles Murray and have an autographed copy of Ron Paul's “The Revolution.” The thread that links all the disparate books and ideas is that they fail in practice. Eliminate all taxes, privatize everything, load a country up with ...and more » […]

CBS NewsRand Paul's balancing act: What to do with Ron Paul's legacy?CBS NewsIn 2012, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul was a force to be reckoned with in the presidential race. His group of supporters - including many young voters - was limited, but passionate. Though he wasn't considered a serious contender for the Republican ...Ron Paul: Congr […]

Ron Paul: 'I'm not pro-Russian. I'm pro-facts'CNNWashington (CNN) Ron Paul defended his controversial stance Friday that the United States should stay out of the crisis between Ukraine and Russia, and joked that he's "considering" supporting his son, Rand Paul, if the senator from Kentucky runs for ...and more »

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold a meeting in Pikeville next month to receive public comments on a rate increase proposed by Mountain Water District. The Thursday, April 16, meeting will be held in conjunction with a public comment meeting on the rate increase sought by Kentucky Power Co.

The nation is taking notice of Kentucky’s record-breaking 2014 economic development efforts. Gov. Steve Beshear today announced that Kentucky placed first nationally in Site Selection magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup rankings for new and expanded industry activity per capita in 2014.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold three meetings to receive public comments on a rate increase proposed by Kentucky Power Co. The meetings will be March 24 in Hazard, March 25 in Louisa and April 16 in Pikeville.

The nation is taking notice of Kentucky’s record-breaking 2014 economic development efforts. Gov. Steve Beshear today announced that Kentucky placed first nationally in Site Selection magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup rankings for new and expanded industry activity per capita in 2014. Kerri RichardsonTerry Sebastian502-564-2611

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold three meetings to receive public comments on a rate increase proposed by Kentucky Power Co. The meetings will be March 24 in Hazard, March 25 in Louisa and April 16 in Pikeville. Andrew Melnykovych502-782-2564 or 502-564-3940502-330-5981 (cell)Andrew.Melnykovych@ky.gov

oday, the Kentucky House of Representatives approved legislation that will make important and sweeping changes to laws governing non-profit entities in the Commonwealth. House Bill 440, which includes many recommendations from Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, passed the chamber unanimously. Lynn Sowards ZellenDirector of CommunicationsSecretary of […]

… idea of industrial hemp farming in Kentucky, so long as our farmers receive a waiver from the feder … However, putting hemp seeds into Kentucky soil is simply not legal at this time. … about industrial hemp farming in Kentucky.http://ag.ky.gov/bio/trackjack/2013/pages/september-27.aspx - 52KB […]

Agenda Item D-2 LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP May 22, 2000 In addition to the biennial budget (discussed in Agenda Item G-3), several important pieces of legislation were passed in the last few days of the session. … http://cpe.ky.gov/nr/rdonlyres/58e375da-9ead-420f-aa48-dfd58a523d21/0/agendad_2.pdf - 43KB

Security Turbulences to World Order: Bringing our Humanity and Planet Back Into Balance RemarksDavid M. LunaSenior Director for Anticrime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Florida International Summit Orlando, FL February 26, 2015 Good morning. It is an honor to be here to speak and participate at this year’s Florida Int […]

by Ruth Bamberger, Legislative Committee Chair Cumberland Chapter, Sierra Club The Kentucky General Assembly officially opened January 6th with the swearing in of all 100 Representatives and 37 Senators. The Democrats have a 54-46 edge in the House and the … Continue reading →

PLEASE JOIN US … this Saturday, August 9th, in the Community Room at the Midway Branch Library, Northside Drive (on the road to the Northside Elementary School) for an important meeting on water issues in Kentucky, and how we can work … Continue reading →

Nairobi, March 3, 2014--A Somali court in Mogadishu on Sunday convicted one journalist of public incitement and two others of publishing false news and imposed harsh fines on them, according to news reports. The journalists are out of prison, but a fourth is still being detained, the reports said.

New York, March 2, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists to ensure the safety of journalists covering the conflict in east Ukraine after photographer Serhiy Nikolayev was reported to have been killed by shelling on Saturday. The Ukrainian photographer, who worked for Kiev-based daily Segodnya […]

São Paulo, March 2, 2015--Brazilian authorities should immediately investigate the murder of radio journalist Ivanildo Viana, identify the motive, and bring the killers to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Bangkok, March 2, 2015--A journalist in Myanmar was detained by police on Friday in connection with a satirical image he posted on Facebook about renewed hostilities between government forces and an ethnic rebel group in the country's northeastern Shan State, according to news reports. Aung Nay Myo was released today without charge, the reports said. […]

February 27, 2015, Mumbai--Bangladeshi authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate the murder on Thursday of a blogger in the capital, Dhaka, and ensure the perpetrators are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Avijit Roy had criticized religious fundamentalism on his blog and had covered secular topics, including free […]

I am a Kentucky veteran with PTSD. I've used pot in the past to help me deal with things from 1967 when I was in Vietnam until 2ooo something. In 1970 I was in the Louisville, Ky. V.A.M.C. for what became PTSD all they did for me was too fill me full of drugs. Drugs like those only make you homeless. Pot let me make some money doing small home repair. A […]

I use cannabis for panic attacks and I've used it for years and I have been on three different pills for my disorder and I quit taking them because of the side effects.marijuana has no side effects you don't get hangovers you don't get sick when you don't have it .its the perfect prescription

This is INSANE, someone take care of this patient! I can tell you right now the cardiologist not seeing her has NOTHING to do with Medical Marijuana. The Doctor won't see her because of the “leadless pacemakers” being in experimental status!!! This is common sense my friends!

Quotes

If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin. Samuel Adams 1776

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.
- Thomas Jefferson

“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” -- Abraham Lincoln

“Tough girls come from New York. Sweet girls, they're from Georgia. But us Kentucky girls, we have fire and ice in our blood. We can ride horses, be a debutante, throw left hooks, and drink with the boys, all the while making sweet tea, darlin'. And if we have an opinion, you know you're gonna hear it.” -- Ashley Judd